List of Most Prolific Financial Services Patent Owners Since 2012

April 26, 2013

Below is a list of the financial services companies that have been the most successful in obtaining patents over the last sixteen months. Bank of America has received 137 patents since the beginning of 2012, followed by American Express with 114 issued patents. Other active companies include USAA, Visa, The Hartford, and Goldman Sachs.

Bank of America has really ramped up its filings over the last few years. For example, just four years ago, in the sixteen months starting in January 2008 and ending April 30, 2009, Bank of America received only three patents.

It’s interesting to see the different strategies employed by companies that seem to be somewhat similarly situated. Among credit card companies, Visa received eighty-one patents, Mastercard twenty-four, and Discover only one.

Top Ten Financial Services Companies Receiving Patents Since 2012

Rank

Company

Patents Since 2012

1

Bank of America

137

2

American Express

114

3

USAA

96

4

Visa

81

5

The Hartford

57

6

Goldman Sachs

48

7

MasterCard

24

8

Citigroup

21

9

PNC

20

10

Wells Fargo

18

CBOE

18

This list is based on the top 4o companies (owning more than five total patents) from my list of total number of patents owned by financial services companies. Again, if you are aware of any financial services companies I should add to the list, please let me know. The list only reflects ownership shown on the faces of the patents and does not account for any assignments after the patents issued. Some companies use holding companies to own their patents whose names don’t match the parent company, which may explain some rather large companies that appear not to have any assigned patents. The results are limited to patents in class 705–which relates to data processing in business and finance. So, if an insurance company had a mice problem and solved it by inventing a better mouse trap, that patent is not included in the list. The results are based on a search of the http://www.freepatentsonline.com database as of April 26, 2013.